February 14, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
The Philadelphia Visitor Center Corp. is developing plans for a 'Rocky' festival that expands on the Rocky Day celebration the city help last year. The bronze statue of Rocky Balboa, one of the city's most popular tourist attractions, is shown above outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Devoted fans of the "Rocky" franchise stunned Philadelphia planners in December when the city held its first Rocky Day outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Sylvester Stallone, the writer and star of the classic films, was greeted by.thousands of people – including some from distant countries – who had come to celebrate boxing's greatest fictional hero. They took pictures in front of the Rocky statue at the foot of the museum's iconic steps and bought merchandise from the new Rocky Shop, a shipping container adjoined to the nearby visitor center.
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The success of Rocky Day so far exceeded the city's expectations that there are now plans taking shape for a larger Rocky festival later this year, one that likely will become an annual tradition.
"It was bonkers," said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitors Center Corp., the nonprofit that markets the city and connects tourists with local experiences.
The Dec. 3 event — held on the 47th anniversary of the original film's release — wasn't expected to be much more than a press conference and a ribbon-cutting for the Rocky Shop. Even factoring in the appearance from Stallone, who had also visited in 2018 to promote "Creed II," Ott Lovell and her colleagues think they downplayed the potential for "Rocky" to generate more tourism in Philly. There was a downpour on Rocky Day, but that didn't stop people from showing up.
"I think 'Rocky' has always been sort of a marketing gimmick for us in the tourism industry," Ott Lovell said. "It's like cheesesteaks and Ben Franklin, but I think Rocky Day helped demonstrate that 'Rocky' is actually a draw for tourism. People are coming to the city to have a 'Rocky' experience."
The story of Rocky Balboa is generally beloved in Philly — it encapsulates the city's underdog ethos — but the lore attached to the film's backdrop isn't necessarily enthralling to the average resident. The bronze Rocky statue, made as a prop that first appeared in "Rocky III," even generated some controversy over where it should be kept when the city accepted it as a gift from Stallone. It spent some time outside the former Spectrum in South Philly before it was permanently placed outside the art museum in 2006.
Since then, the statue has been a year-round magnet for tourists. Its pop culture appeal contrasts somewhat oddly with the more elevated art museum, whose leaders have only recently warmed to leveraging Rocky's mystique as a way to increase visitation.
Many of the Rocky Day attendees in December traveled internationally from places including Venezuela, Chile, France and Germany. Ott Lovell said Philly is "a mythical place" to "Rocky" fans who identify the city with the Oscar-winning film and its five sequels. For some, Rocky Day showed that scenes from movies are pilgrimage sites.
"I think what we don't understand is that what Sylvester Stallone created was a fairy tale — a fable," she said. "He wrote an allegory and that's what this is to the rest of the world. It's not just a Hollywood movie. It holds a much deeper meaning and it is symbolic of what the American dream is."
On Wednesday, PVCC held its first meeting to begin planning this year's Rocky festival, which could be held over several days or weeks. A date has not yet been set, but it will overlap with Rocky Day. Specifics need to be ironed out, but the event could involve developing organized tours at notable locations from the movies.
"What we hear from visitors is that (the art museum) is just one stop on their 'Rocky' tour," Ott Lovell said. "People are actually creating their own tour to go to Mighty Mick's Gym, to go the Victor Cafe, to go see Adrian's grave at Laurel Hill Cemetery or go to the Italian Market. People are doing this on their own."
The festival also could involve participation from Philly businesses that embrace "Rocky" themes and promotions for travelers. Ott Lovell expects the next two years to build up to a huge occasion celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Rocky" in 2026, which will be a banner year for tourism in Philadelphia with the nation's 250th birthday celebration and the FIFA World Cup coming to town.
Ott Lovell joined PVCC last July after previously serving as director of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and working with the Fairmount Park Conservancy before that. She played an instrumental role in developing the project — now in its early stages — to redesign the Benjamin Franklin Parkway into a greener, more walkable public space in the years ahead. The current plan would connect Eakins Oval to the Parkway and art museum to create one giant, landscaped park capable of hosting future events like the Rocky festival.
Ott Lovell said she wants to take a more parks-centric approach to cultivating tourist attractions in Philly.
"What we're doing with the visitor center and Rocky Shop at the base of the art museum steps is just a proof of concept," she said. "We definitely need to think more ambitiously about a much larger visitor center that can provide the important resources and amenities for all the people who want to have that experience. There's a much larger conversation and narrative that we need to shift here around the value and the power of public space in terms of attracting visitation and tourism."
